Lifesaving side net for ships



A. w. SCRUTTON 2,286,936

LIFE SAVING SIDE NET FOR SHIPS June 16, 1942.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 3, 1941 m W w w WM a as v cm 3 mm I Q Q, Q

June 16, l942.- A. w. SCRUTTON 2,285,936

LIFE SAVING SIDE NET FOR SHIPS Filed NOV. 3, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 AnA/mfx/l/Jm/rmm Patented June 16, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Alexander Willis Scrutton, Liverpool, England Application November 3, 1941, Serial N0. 417,700

' In Great Britain April 23, 1941 3 Claims. cl. 228-40) Y suitable support such as the deck rail of a ship, is

The present invention relates to life-saving side nets for ships, known in the trade as scrambling or rope side nets, and has for its primary object to provide means, without materially adding to the weight of the net, for imparting rigidity to those ropes of the net which function as rungs during rescue work by a ship from whose side the net is hung, and for rendering them unyielding during use.

For convenience, reference is made herein to wefts and warps, not for the purpose of indicating that the net is woven to fabric form, but solely to distinguish between ropes extending laterally or horizontally across the net as in the case of wefts, and ropes lying longitudinally and vertically of the net when in use as in the case of warps.

According to the present invention relative angular displacement between hollow rung elements of rigid material and weft ropes which are threaded therethrough is substantially prevented by warp ropes constituting the side ropes of said weft or rung ropes so as to render the hollow rung elements unyielding during use.

In a convenient form of construction the wefts are threaded through axial bores of rigid rung elements extending between adjacent warps which in turn are threaded through radial bores in, and adjacent, the ends of the elements.

It will be seen that immediately a load is applied to the warps such as, for example, by one or more persons endeavouring to climb the net, sagging or bending of the wefts between adjacent warps is prevented as is also the rotation of the rigid rung elements, both of these advantages being obtained without adversely influencing the rolling up of the net when not in use.

The invention is more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a life-saving or scrambling side net for ships according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is a detail of a rigid rung element shown partly in section and with a weft and a pair of adjacent warps passing therethrough.

In the construction according to the drawings, the rope frame of the net, which may be of manila, sisal, or any other fibre or thread, is of substantially rectangular form as shown at In the rope being bent upon itself at spaced intervals, i. e., at the corners and at other points between the top corners to form eyelets II each of which is adapted. to receive a metallic thimble I2 by which a lanyard I3, adapted to be tied to a be fastened to alife-boat in the case where the net is used as the means by which persons in the life-boat board a rescuing vessel, to which the upper end of the net is connected.

The net may be made up of any number of wefts l4 disposed horizontally from one side of the net to the other and by any desired numbers of warps I5 disposed vertically of the net at laterally spaced intervals, the warps and wefts being connected at their ends in any desired manner to the frame Ill.

Each weft passes through the longitudinal bores of a number of hollow rigid rung elements I 6 made of ash, teak, or other wood or of light metal, or again of a synthetic resin, such as, for example, the phenol formaldehyde condensation product sold under the trade-mark Bakelite.

As will be seen from the drawings, and with the object of maintaining the weight of the net at a minimum, the rigid rung elements I6, when considering each vertical flight, i. e., between any two adjacent warps I5, are disposed on alternate wefts I4 leaving the intermediate wefts of such vertical flight uncovered.

Again, as can be seen from the drawings, the rigid rung elements I6 are also disposed in staggered relationship, that is to say, on the weft I4 immediately below the upper horizontal limb of the frame II] the rigid rung elements It are disposed in the first, third, fifth flights, whilst on the second and even numbered wefts I4 from the top, the rigid rung elements I6 are disposed in the second, fourth, sixth and even numbered flights throughout the width of the net.

Each rigid rung element I6 is of a length slightly greater than the lateral spacing of two adjacent warps I5 and at each enlarged end I7 is radially bored as shown at I8 to permit of the passage of the vertical warps I5 radially through the ends of the rigid rung elements.

During the formation of a net each warp I5 after being passed through the bores I8 at one end ll of a rigid rung element I6 is knotted as shown at I9 so that when a load is applied to the net by a person climbing it, the knots I9 maintain the rungs I6 in the required vertical relationship whilst again under such conditions not only are the rungs rigid for the purpose of facilitating climbing of the net by the person being rescued but the rigid rungs are unyielding in the sense that they will not rotate when stepped upon, rotation being prevented by the passage of the loaded warps [5 through the rungs.

In the particular form of the invention illustrated in the drawings, each end of each warp I5 and one end of each weft I4 is passed around the rope constituting the frame and is then spliced thereto as shown at 20 but in the case of each weft the opposite end, after emerging longitudinally from that rigid rung element l6 lying adjacent the frame ID of the net, is first passed around the frame as at 2! and thence downwardly through the radial bores I8 of the rigid rung element whence it is knotted at 22 and then finally spliced to the frame. Thus, at one end of each weft l4, 1. e., at that end where a rung l6 lies adjacent a side limb of the frame I!) of the net the weft l4 functions to take the place of the missing warp l5 thereby enabling rigid rung elements to be used between the frame ID and the first warp 15 of the net.

It will be appreciated that when not in use the net may be rolled up and held in the slung position and when rescue work is called for its may be readily released to allow its free end to descend to sea level with the upper end maintained on its support such as for example, in spaced relationship with a number of similar nets on a guide rail of a ship.

I declare that what I claim is:

1. A life-saving side net for ships comprising a flexible frame, a plurality of spaced weft ropes across said frame, a plurality of spaced warp ropes longitudinally of said frame, hollow rigid rung elements having a longitudinal bore and transverse communicating bores on each end with the Weft ropes passing through the longitudinal bores of the elements and the warp ropes passing through the transverse end bores, and means for maintaining the mesh of the ropes between the frame members.

2. A life-saving side net for ships as claimed in claim 1 and wherein each warp is knotted immediately below a hollow rung element to form a seating for said element and to prevent enlargement of a mesh.

3. A life-saving side net for ships as claimed in claim 1 and wherein in each vertical flight between a pair of adjacent warp ropes the hollow rigid rung elements are disposed about alternate weft ropes and in staggered relationship with the rigid rung elements of adjacent vertical flights.

ALEXANDER WILLIS SCRUTTON. 

